Towards the end of 2019, Square Enix announced more than 5.5 million copies of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age had been shipped and downloaded worldwide since the game's initial release in 2017. This was also one of the biggest releases on the Switch last year, outside of the major first-party titles.

It should come as no surprise then, that a new mainline Dragon Quest game is already in development. Series creator Yuji Horii recently confirmed in a New Year tweet that Dragon Quest XII began development last year, exactly 33 years after he started working on the original Famicom title. Below is the full translation, courtesy of @BlackKite:

Last year we started with publishing the movie Dragon Quest: Your Story, then releasing the Switch version of Dragon Quest 11, the mobile version of DQ Walk, the announcement of The Adventure of Dai anime along with its game adaptation, the production of [DQ]12 and more; even now after 33 years have passed since I made the 1st game, I feel very glad that I can do new challenges like these. Thank you very much to all users who have cheered on Dragon Quest until now, and also to all of the many staff members who have supported me. I don’t know how long I can go on, but I feel like I want to do my best just a little bit more. I hope this year will be an amazing year to everyone. I’m looking forward to work together in this year.

The Dragon Quest series had an outstanding year in 2019. not only did the Switch receive Dragon Quest XI S, it also got Dragon Quest Builders 2 and multiple classic Dragon Quest games on the Switch eShop. To top it off, the Hero (aka. the protagonist of the series) was added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a DLC fighter.

Did you play any Dragon Quest games last year? Are you a new or longtime fan of the series? Leave a comment below.

When he’s not paying off a loan to Tom Nook, Liam likes to report on the latest Nintendo news and admire his library of video games. His favourite Nintendo character used to be a guitar-playing dog, but nowadays he prefers to hang out with Judd the cat.

Only Dragon Quest Builders 1 & 2 on Nintendo Switch & PS4 version.
I really hope for Dragon Quest Builders 3 with more details of character customization from head to toe, default separated clothings (top, bottom, gloves, shoes, accessories, headgear) until the voice sample. Also, the jobs variety from Knight, Archer, Mage, Cleric, Thief, etc with different weapons to equip. And of course 60fps for both Switch and PS4 version.

The Dragon Quest series is awesome. However, it is hard to play them one after another due to their length (especially the battle systems). Usually a few skip by before I can attempt another one. I know the classic battle system follows tradition but it needs to be quickened a bit.

I think it will be a long time before we seen any information about this game. Dragon Quest XI was in development over 4 years before a Japanese release and then 5 years for a western release. Even if they did start in late 2018 once the western release came out for PS4, I highly doubt we see the game on current hardware. It's likely gonna be a 2022/23 game for Japan.

I beat VIII a couple months ago and I’m 45 hours into XI now. I can’t believe how much I’m enjoying these games, and I’m not even typically a fan of RPGs. I’ll be sorely disappointed if XII doesn’t come to Switch.

I liked dq11 but did anyone else feel it burnt itself out with how long it went on for? Also the dialogue it gives with options is silly in that it has no consequences in saying yes or no lolHope combat has more variety as 50 hours in and your doing the same move patterns so would love to personally see a change in dq12?

I was actually pretty excited for dragon quest 11, but when I played the demo I was horrified at how bad the gameplay and English localization was. I ended up deciding not to buy 11 and I am not excited for a sequel at all.